Jim L

Not a fan of video review in any sport, but I thought the official giving a detail explanation was a big improvement. The reviews went fairly quickly and the announcement and his emphasis gave it a little bit more drama.

I don't care about him and his recruiting and that is why I am constantly checking in to see what he is doing

Hard to compare the medal haul in 72 & 92 with ten weight classes v. today's 6. Also to note that with one Russian per weight, they won 8 medals with 5 golds in 72 and 7 medals with 3 golds in 92. Add another 5 or so Soviet wrestlers to those earlier tournaments and force everyone into 6 weight classes.

That is your opinion as someone who has watched Folkstyle and prefers it. Almost all of your examples are confusing to you because you are used to Folkstyle rules, which you believe is the proper and more obvious way to score. Someone who is used to BJJ, Folkstyle, Judo, etc. (or completely unfamiliar with any rule set) can make a list just as long about the non-sensical rules in Folkstyle, as your last sentence indicates. I don't think there are many universal rules that inherently make sense for all styles of grappling. Each style has their own rules

Where there 10 weight classes iin 72?

I agree with you on Kolat, but in general US wrestling fans saw conspiracy everywhere when simple incompetency was the best explanation.

I have watched both Folkstyle and Freestyle with sports fans who don't know much about either set of wrestling rules and it is clear to me than there are non-intuitive rules and situation approximately equally in both styles. As US wrestling fans who grew in wrestling folkstyle, we cannot overcome our bias of what is the proper way wrestling should be scored and what constitutes domination in grappling.

The pools were random draws and the topt wo wrestlers could end in the same pool. Satiev did not advance out of his pool in 2000, when he was upset by Slay. Lots of b1tching by US fans on how unfair the draws were for US wrestlers for every international tournament and how the fix was n against the US. Most of "they are out to get us" conspiracy theory has gone away as the US has gotten better in Freestyle

Anything to get to more weight classes. Not a fan of pools, current repecharge is fine and even bronzes to the semi final losers works for me. All that is inconsequential compared to getting more weight classes.

OOF...looks like my negative take on US Greco was hopelessly optimistic.

Good to see that there will be a lot more opportunities for all the equestrian athletes that. Does that mean every school with an equestrian team has to have 50 scholarships or no NIL money for that sport?

Like I said, it is an imperfect comparison. I did not know about the Sunkist match in 2009. Also Askren was clearly better in Folk than Free and his Jr and Sr year he was one of the best NCAA wrestles ever.

As opposed to NHS67's prediction of US wrestlers in 4 medal matches, I will go with the US GR team wins 4 matches total. Based on recent world performances, maybe not a bold prediction

Askren / Pendleton might be the better comparison. Still not perfect because peak Taylor beat peak Yaz, while Pendleton never faced Askren at his peak, as he got much better after his sophomore year.

Not trying to sh*t on them, just countering your point that they were 5th despite only had two meets, plus showing off my top notch math skills. 1,940 for a meet does not seem terrible either, especially compared to some of the other "big-time" programs

As someone who has done some complaining about the process, it is ironic that this is the only recruiting process I have ever followed as I don't really pay attention to HS wrestling.

Considering they are ranked by average only having two meets helps their ranking. If my math is right the non-PSU meet had 1,940 fans puttig them at 17th for that ranking

My memory gets a little questionable as well, but I "remember" him beating nationally ranked PA state champ while he was in 8th grade (maybe he was a FR). Either way maybe the GOAT of middle school wrestlers, the sentiment that he never met expectations as a 4X PA undefeated champ, multiple time AA in college shows that there is no worse curse than unlimited potential.

Very unusual to for wrestling to get any mention in SI. HS wrestling maybe 1 or 2 times per decade. https://vault.si.com/vault/1980/03/17/hes-really-a-rugged-competitor-high-school-star-kenny-monday-came-off-the-carpet-to-mop-up-on-the-mat

Well its not good. If my team is not expecting to be in serious consideration, getting on the list and dropped early just seems to re-enforce that we are nowhere to being a school that top rated wrestlers should consider.

They are also getting talked about as early rejects. Not the best publicity IMO. We also talked about the handful of teams that did not even make the list

Seems like a sh*tty way to bring attention to the schools that are being eliminated early. "These schools suck so much that they are eliminated quickly" Yeah, I wasn't going to ever date the prom queen, but being one of the first to be crossed off her list is a kick in the nuts that I don't need

The same athletes usually win. If a lot of the field was equal and it was truly chance, you should see a wider variety of winners.

Viewers who don't typically watch sports are the target audience for gymnastics (and figure skating, diving, etc) and obviously this is largely female (plus the pervs?) This is the key demographic for networks to boost their ratings as sports fans are going to be watching the Olympics anyways (and like me they will complain about how much coverage gymnastics gets).

Is this AIN situation occurring is other Olympic sports?